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By Slade Sohmer on February 19, 2013

Sometimes in order to protect the Constitution, we need to take an unconstitutional step. Sometimes in order to ensure the Second Amendment does not weaken further, we need to shut down the First Amendment.

Welcome to Missouri, where legislating against legislating is what one House member thinks will keep gun owners safe from the real criminals: people who think there ought to be any more regulation of dangerous firearms.

Rep. Mike Leara, a Republican who represents part of St. Louis County, wants to make it a Class D felony for any member of the general assembly to even propose legislation that would *further* restrict an individual’s right to bear arms.

If you suns’a’bitches even propose a bill aimed at saving lives, Rep. Leara wants you jailed. The logic here is infallible! Leara is so upset you want to infringe on his rights, he’s going to try to make a law that infringes on your right to infringe on his. This is the state of modern political discourse.

Here’s the summary of HB 633: “Specifies that any member of the general assembly who proposes legislation that further restricts an individual’s right to bear arms will be guilty of a class D felony.”

The bill’s text — click to embiggen:

Whether or not we agree on how to make this country safer — for the record, 58 percent of Gallup respondents believe laws concerning the sale of firearms should be more strict, 34 percent said same as now, only 6 percent said less strict — can we all agree not to throw lawmakers in prison for looking around the country and seeing too much gun violence?

Rep. Stacey Newman, a Democrat from St. Louis, recently introduced HB 187, which “Requires that all sales or transfers of firearms be processed through a licensed firearms dealer.” This criminal sees the writing on the wall, and Newman tweeted about her future residence on Monday:

Since there is a filibuster in the Missouri Senate, sometimes House members will file bills that might make for good talking points on the stump, though they don’t have much faith in them becoming law. If Leara has any realistic vision that a bill like this could potentially become law in his state, we have bigger problems than gun violence in this country.

UPDATE: Kansas City Star reporter Jason Hancock tweeted this:

Leara says he has “no illusions” bill will become law, but wanted to make a statment that the House will defend right to bear arms. #moleg

UPDATE II: In addition to Newman’s bill, Rep. Rory Ellinger recently introduced an assault weapon ban bill, HB 545. Rep. Rep. Eric Burlison decided to ask constituents what they thought about it, which is how the bill ended up full of target practice holes. Shades of Joe Manchin, only darker: